The
Performance Edge: G3 And G4 Upgrade Prices Are Falling Right And
Left - Newer's New Price/Performance Equation

Monday, October 2, 2000

NewerTech
is having another round of price cuts since their temporary cuts of
August. This time Zif upgrades and PDS upgrades are on the price chopping
block. The PDS upgrade is for NuBus based Macs (the 7100 & 8100
machines) and carries a price cut of $50.

There are three Zif upgrades, two G4s and a G3/500,
for beige & blue and white PowerMacs. Price drops on these range
between $150 and $100

What kind of performance gain are you getting for the
money you'll be shelling out for the various cards?......

Scores marked in Red indicate this information
was provided by Newer. Scores Marked in Blue
indicate that this information was independently verified by MacSpeedZone.
Also keep in mind that MacBench does not stress the G4's accelerated
functions. For Applications that are accelerated for the G4 you can
see up to a 1.5 - 5 times speed improvement over a similarly clocked
G3 processor.

And how much do you pay per performance point (price divided
by performance score) ....

Hard Drives & Optical Drives

RAM & Other Memory

SCSI, Firewire USB Cards

Used/Refurbished Macs
Service & Parts

Newer Dramatically Reduces Pricing on Several G3/G4 CPU Upgrades
Improved manufacturing provides customers with as much as $150 in price
reductions
WICHITA, KS, USA - October 2, 2000 - Newer Technology, the technology
leader in Apple [NASDAQ: AAPL] Macintosh CPU upgrades, announces the
reduction in pricing of the world's most highly rated G3 and G4 CPU upgrade
cards. Improved pricing covers cards from 300MHz to 500MHz. Including cards
utilizing Newer's award winning MAXpowr hardware ROM compatibility
circuitry. These are the only cards on the market that are truly 100%
compatible with Apple's 7300-9600 series of Power Macintosh computers.
"Leveraging our continual improvements in manufacturing, made possible
through our partner Tri-M Technologies, we are able to bring attractively
priced upgrade cards to market," stated John Nelson, Newer's iPresident.
"We are very excited by the prospect that our technically superior CPU
upgrade cards have become affordable to a much wider range of customers".
The red-hot 500MHz/1MB/250MHz MAXpowr G3-ZIF module, which operates in
Apple's "beige" or "blue &white" computers, has recently undergone a
significant price reduction. Due to major improvements in manufacturing and
deliverability, Newer has been able to dramatically reduce the price by
$100 to its new price of $399, an amazing 20% price decrease. The equally
desirable 400MHz/1MB/200MHz and 450MHz/1MB/225 MAXpowr G4-ZIF modules, have
both experienced significant price reductions. The 400MHz has dropped in
price by $150 to its new price of 399, an incredible 27% price decrease.
The 450MHz card has dropped in price by $130 to its new price of $549 which
represents a price reduction of 19%.
In another stunning move Newer has been able to significantly reduce the
price of the phenomenally popular 264-300MHz MAXpowr G3 PDS 71/81 card
which operates in Apple's 7100 and 8100 series of computers, Power
Computing Power 100 and Power 120, as well as the Radius clone computers.
These cards have experienced a price drop of $50 to its new Suggested
Street Price of $399. That represents more than a 10% reduction in cost to
the customer. Making this price reduction even more amazing is the fact
that these cards include, at no additional cost, the video circuit which
enables customers to continue using their existing AV or HPV video cards.
Other companies charge $100 for this circuit, but Newer provides this $100
value for free.
Citing improved manufacturing and operations issues Newer has also been
able to dramatically
lower the price on two of their non-CPU line of products. Newer's FireWire
2 Go, 1394 cardbus card, for PowerBooks along with their FireWire 2 Go for
PC notebooks have both experienced a price reduction of $20 to their new
price of $89. This represents an amazing 25% lower price for both the
Macintosh and PC versions of the FireWire card. In related news, Newer has
been able to reduce the cost of the popular BookEndz docking stations for
the 1999 PowerBook G3 notebook computers. This product has seen a drop in
price of $30 to its new price of $199. This is a reduction of 13%.
MAXpowr Differences
MAXpowr G4 upgrades use Newer's exclusive SmartSet technology which allows
the processor upgrade to set its bus speed automatically - there are no
switches to tinker with. MAXpowr processor upgrades are set to run at the
optimum bus speed for fastest memory access § without adding wait states
that slow system performance, or push the memory beyond Apple's
specifications. Rather than artificially inflating the bus speed (important
only for older motherboard Level 2 cache access), MAXpowr processor
upgrades set the system bus at speeds that produce the least number of wait
states between the CPU and system memory. Patent-pending Compatibility
Circuitry on the MAXpowr upgrade provides the correct management of
speculative access so that users data is not at risk - without demanding
user input. MAXpowr G4 upgrades also correctly manage context switching -
where instructions processed by the AltiVec unit inside the G4 CPU are
executed successfully despite interrupts. If interrupted the instruction
results are not saved correctly therefore data is at risk of corruption.
There are a number of white papers on Newer Technology's website which
discuss these topics in great detail.
Newer Technology, Inc.
October 2000 Price Reductions
Power Macintosh Processor Upgrades & Peripherals
September October
Street Price Street Price
MAXpowr G4-ZIF
450MHz/1MB/225MHz $679 $549
400MHz/1MB/200MHz $549 $399
PowerMac G3 (beige, all speeds);
PowerMac G3 towers (blue/ice, all speeds)
MAXpowr G3-ZIF
500MHz/1MB/250MHz $499 $399
PowerMac G3 (beige, all speeds);
PowerMac G3 towers (blue/ice, all speeds)
MAXpowr G3 PDS
7100/8100: 264MHz-300MHz/1MB/176-200MHz $449 $399
PowerMac 7100/66, 7100/66AV, 7100/80, 7100/80AV; with free
8100/80, 8100/80AV, 8100/100, 8100/100AV, 8100/110, video circuit
WGS 8150; Radius 81/100, 81/110
PERIPHERALS
FireWire Products
FireWire 2 Go /Mac - - CardBus Card $119 $89
PowerBook G3 Series (1998 and 1999)
FireWire 2 Go /PC - - CardBus Card $119 $89
PC Notebook Computers
PowerBook Docking Stations
BookEndz
PowerBook G3 (1999) $229 $199
Availability
Newer Technology Macintosh products are available worldwide through major
distributors, with North American distribution through Ingram-Micro as well
as through national resellers, value-added resellers, online sources and
mail order catalogs. Newer's USB products can be purchased through the more
than 800 Sears retail stores throughout North America. Newer Technology
products can also be purchased from Newer's online store at
www.newerstore.com.
Newer Technology has consistently lead the development of processor
upgrades for Apple Macintosh computers. Newer's firsts include the first
Power Macintosh processor upgrade. The first G3 Power Mac processor upgrade
and the first G3 processor upgrade for the Power Mac 6100, 7100 and 8100
series as well as the iMac. MAXpowr upgrades are also the only upgrades to
feature a hardware solution for speculative access management. Newer
Technology has more than 15 years of experience and is the leading
developer of performance upgrades for Apple PowerBooks, desktop Apple
Macintosh computers and Mac OS compatibles. For more information, contact
Newer Technology, Inc., 4848 W. Irving Street, Wichita, KS 67209; phone: +1
316-943-0222; fax: +1 316/943-0555; e-mail: sales@newertech.com, or visit
the website at http://www.newertech.com. For international inquiries,
please contact info@newertech.com.